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chloesshelf's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Love, love, love! This book was absolutely incredibly from start to finish. Hilariously heartbreaking. I was a bit skeptical going into it as I’ve already watched the series but I’m so glad I did. I can’t believe it took me so long to buy this book.
The one thing I love the most about this is that it’s an autobiography but it feels like fiction. It’s written as if it’s an actual story with a plot line. I don’t have a single bad thing to say about this book other than the fact that I need to know more about Dolly.
Her teenage years were incredibly relatable all the way down to her Will Young email address for MSN. I was more of a Gareth Gates fan but hey ho!
If you’re going to listen to any of my suggestions, please pick up this book. It’s an absolute gem!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Cancer, and Death
Moderate: Sexual content
laurataylor's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Sexual content
emtay's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
A powerful attestation to finding oneself and recognizing love in all its iterations. Most young women with a college degree and a playfully limited suburban, middle-class background will recognize themselves and their compatriots in its pages. Perhaps because of my age or my current situation, I found myself trying to distance myself at every turn from Dolly and her tendencies, to point to every subtle difference between us as evidence that her conclusions do not apply to me. However, at the same time, this desire implies recognition. For the devils inside, my insecurities, my difficulties in experiencing life, the fissures in my sense of self, and the brokenness in my past. Yet, I find myself comforted by my present experience of sorority amongst my friends, the unabashed love we feel and express, and I am proud that I live everyday in full appreciation and comfort of its warm glow. I am glad that it did not take me to 30 to see that. That at 23 I have crystallized that the love I feel for my friends is true, massive, important. Constant.
Thankful I don’t drink. Thankful I don’t do drugs. Thankful I cry at sunsets. Thankful I dance on my roof in the rain. Thankful I sleep in Anty’s bed and thankful I sleep in F’s. Thankful I speak to museum docents and thankful I cook meals for and with my roommates. Thankful I experience the idea of my friends as drunk rose laughter and tangled limbs. May we laugh long. May we believe that each day is a step. May we believe that we are enough not because of what we have, what we do, or what we look like; but because we are- and we have each other to prove it.
I removed the knife from Z’s hands and threw everything sharp unceremoniously down the garbage shoot. Sab in the hospital in anaphylactic shock then going out to McDonald’s for McFlurry’s at 2 am. Sarah using me as a punching bag while being abused by her college boyfriend. Anty kissing me to see if her chapstick actually tasted like chapstick (it did not). Livi falling out of the car door as I turned onto the 10-W so we could go to a sex shop on a Tuesday night, loaded up in my Tacoma like we were setting out on a road trip to our futures.
Hard to read at times. We all want to understand our lives. To believe we are in control. To believe that we aren’t hurting. This book exposes the subtleties of growing up and how at no stage is there any “knowing”. How suitable that it’s in the title.
Thankful I don’t drink. Thankful I don’t do drugs. Thankful I cry at sunsets. Thankful I dance on my roof in the rain. Thankful I sleep in Anty’s bed and thankful I sleep in F’s. Thankful I speak to museum docents and thankful I cook meals for and with my roommates. Thankful I experience the idea of my friends as drunk rose laughter and tangled limbs. May we laugh long. May we believe that each day is a step. May we believe that we are enough not because of what we have, what we do, or what we look like; but because we are- and we have each other to prove it.
I removed the knife from Z’s hands and threw everything sharp unceremoniously down the garbage shoot. Sab in the hospital in anaphylactic shock then going out to McDonald’s for McFlurry’s at 2 am. Sarah using me as a punching bag while being abused by her college boyfriend. Anty kissing me to see if her chapstick actually tasted like chapstick (it did not). Livi falling out of the car door as I turned onto the 10-W so we could go to a sex shop on a Tuesday night, loaded up in my Tacoma like we were setting out on a road trip to our futures.
Hard to read at times. We all want to understand our lives. To believe we are in control. To believe that we aren’t hurting. This book exposes the subtleties of growing up and how at no stage is there any “knowing”. How suitable that it’s in the title.
It may seem life is difficult at times but it’s really as simple as breathing in and out... Rip open hearts with your fury and tear down egos with your modesty. Be the person you wish you could be, not the person you feel you are doomed to be. Let yourself run away with your feelings. You were made so that someone could love you. Let them love you (“Florence”)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death and Drug use
downsophialane's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol and Drug use
Moderate: Sexual content
mince's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Eating disorder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Cancer
sophie_paterson's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder and Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer
spaghettireads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Sexual content and Mental illness
nialiversuch's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Death, Terminal illness, Cancer, Body shaming, Sexual content, Grief, and Eating disorder
Minor: Cursing, Addiction, Pregnancy, and Toxic relationship
emmawilkins's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship
fayereadsbooks's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I really enjoyed my first non-fiction read of 2021. It is the memoir of Dolly Alderton and her experiences of relationships, love, friendships and life in her teens and twenties. It discusses lots of serious topics, such as alcohol and grief. Definitely check out the content warnings as this book got quite dark.
Dolly lives a life of booze, parties, one-night stands and clubbing. This book confirmed to me that this isn't what I want to do with my life (nothing against the people who do but its just not for me)
My favourite chapter was 'Enough'. It made me cry and I was so glad that Dolly was finally able to see her worth. Even if you don't want to read the whole book, i would encourage you to try and read just this chapter as it will help a lot of people to understand how special and perfect they are in this world and hopefully help them to see their worth.
Farly seems like the sort of friend everyone needs in there life, she seems so so lovely.
Dolly lives a life of booze, parties, one-night stands and clubbing. This book confirmed to me that this isn't what I want to do with my life (nothing against the people who do but its just not for me)
My favourite chapter was 'Enough'. It made me cry and I was so glad that Dolly was finally able to see her worth. Even if you don't want to read the whole book, i would encourage you to try and read just this chapter as it will help a lot of people to understand how special and perfect they are in this world and hopefully help them to see their worth.
Farly seems like the sort of friend everyone needs in there life, she seems so so lovely.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Grief, Medical content, and Sexual content
disordered eating and excessive weight loss, leukaemia
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